India’s mobile-preference has led to a boom in travel services and apps over the last few years
The Indian domestic travel market is set to reach almost $50 Billion by 2020, according to a report published by Google and BCG.
With improvements in smartphone technology and advancement in connectivity, the market is going to grow at 11% annually. Air travel and Hotels will grow between 13-15% year over year, driving the main revenue behind transportation and travel for most of the industry players. It’s a growth industry, with many startups and applications launching every year.
Vikas Agnihotri, Industry Director at Google India believes that the domestic travel market will be enhanced due to the ease of booking tickets online and through mobile.
“India’s domestic travel market is on an acceleration path. One of the key findings of the report is that by 2020, one in three hotel rooms will be booked online - a clear indicator of the growing importance of digital in travel research, planning and booking. Technology has led to democratization of travel through better information and price discovery – and shall lead to 11-11.5% growth in years ahead.”
With almost 60% of consumers believing that online gives better deals than traditional routes, travel apps and services have boomed over the last few years. They’re offering a unique service in the market, and one that’s empowering young India to travel in a cost-effective manner.
Travel apps are the 7th most downloaded type of apps in the play-store, with more people looking for great deals and experiences than ever before. Almost 70% of people travelling to a destination will post a picture on social media for their friends, and many of them use their mobile devices throughout the duration of their journey.
What makes travel apps so popular? It’s the result of India’s mobile-first mentality. For cashless payments, we turn towards mobile apps. For booking a bus ticket, we look at deals on mobile. For planning our trips, we look at the distance and traffic on mobile maps. India’s a country that wants to empower itself via mobile devices, and travel apps are the ones benefitting from it the most.
There are services that provide the best deals, there are others who focus on platform-centric connectivity, and many that are value-chain drivers like cars or bus rental services. One of these travel app companies is Trip N Howl, which is a marketplace for service providers to connect with customers. Customers can choose from a range of agencies that offer various benefits via their business models.
Satyajeet Pradhan, CEO Bizydale Nets (Trip N Howl) is creating new avenues for customers to explore different ways in which they can optimize their travel experiences.
"The application brings the best agencies and offerings that a discerning traveller requires."
With the myriad of travel apps including MakeMyTrip, Ixigo, Yatra, GoIbibo, etc. customers have a large range of options to choose from when selecting the perfect travel experience for their destination. This has made a few travel apps the clear winners in the space, while others are catching up to the rising demand in the industry.
Ixigo was ranked as the second fastest growing app of last year, with MakeMytrip taking first place. Ixigo’s CEO Aloke Bajpai attributes it all to innovation the travel apps space. He’s worked hard to ensure that the customer experience is unique and caters to their personal needs.
“Ixigo’s focus on solving real travel problems through product innovation and its unwavering commitment to get travelers the best deals, has resulted in a staggering 3x year-on-year growth for the last 2 years, both in terms of traffic and revenue. We have achieved this hyper-growth while improving our store NPS (Net Promoter Score), which has touched +70% for our apps. We are proud that 80% of our growth comes from organic mediums and word of mouth, in comparison to the heavy marketing spends by the incumbents in this category.”
India’s travel and tourism industry is the 7th largest in the world (about 9% of GDP), and its growth is being fueled by travel apps that go deeper into tier 2 and 3 cities. No longer are people only travelling in the metros, the smaller towns are seeing the benefits of accelerated smartphone adoption and increase in disposable income. Some of India’s biggest startups are focused on disrupting how people book hotel and travel tickets – through the power of mobile applications.
RedBus and OyoRooms one two such innovations that have taken India’s travel domain by storm. In terms of RedBus, with over a million tickets sold a month, it’s one of the fastest growing travel app in India. It’s acquisition under Ibibo group, made many investors ecstatic with a fruitful exit.
When it comes to OyoRooms, Ritesh Aggarwal, OyoRooms founder is happy about the growth of his travel app, owing to the rise in demand of travel services.
“We started with just one hotel. Today, we partner with more than 4,000 hotels in India across 160 cities. We book a million room nights a month and continue to be a fast-growing business in India.”
WANDERLUST APP
- Almost 60% of consumers believing that online gives better deals than traditional routes
- They’re offering a unique service in the market, and one that’s empowering young India to travel in a cost-effective manner
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